randomness

Christian and other apologists and casuists keep telling us that infinity is a nonsense concept that is not in reality. Of course they do this in the context of trying to cobble together coherent apologetics and sophistry for their gods. As is usually the case with apologetics... ironically...

Based partially on this thread: http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/showthread.php?goto=newpost&t=285993 Occasionally we have threads on the ISF about the tendency for skeptics to have specific topics that we are less than rational about. One of my personal topics that fall within this...

I've seen this claimed several times, specifically on "What the Bleep" in which they say a machine producing 0's and 1's can be pushed to a majority of one number or the other with the mind alone. Is there any truth to these claims?

I've created this thread because I disagree with these last two statements completely (and didn't want to derail the thread they were posted in). While it may be impossible to prove, given our current understanding of physics, whether or not the universe is deterministic or not, there are no...

and how is it "random"? Or does the phrase "random variable" mean something different that a combination of "random" and "variable" (i.e., a variable that is random, can take on random values)? Note: I do have some knowledge of probability theory beyond that which is taught in primary and...

The title of the thread is a frequently stated (often without a proof) theorem in probability theory an statitistics. In another thread, someone pointed out to me that functions such as f(X)=0X+c and f(X)=X^0+c, where X is a random variable and c is a real number, are not random variables...

Here is a thread to discuss how the word "random" applies, or does not apply, to the Theory of Evolution, depending on how you define the word, and stuff like that. I have started this thread, so that no others need to get derailed on this (often semantically and mathematically confusing)...

Let's say you're attempting to test a coin for fairness. You toss the coin N times and get N heads (or tails)*. You know getting N heads or N tails should occur with a probability 1/2^(N-1). In other words, over an infinite number of trials of a fair coin, each N tosses long, 100%/2^(N-1) of...

I apologize in advance for the length of the imbedded quotation, but I prefer, in this case, to let people speak for themselves when it comes to their positions. The content and questions of diverge from the topic of the thread in which the post occurs, so I am starting this thread.

Does it really makes sense to say the one thing is "more random" than other? As I understand it, mathematical randomness is at its core defined on a probability measure. Functions that are defined on a probability measure are random and those are not defined on a probability measure are not...

I see it being misapplied all over the place here. Granted, I did not introduce myself on the best of terms here by asking questions that made me sound like creationist. However, it seems that more and more the label "creationist" (like the label "religious apologist" in threads discussing the...

Following on from the thread in "science and technology" about this, I am somewhat surprised at the heated reaction to any description of evolution as a stochastic process. When (if ever) is it appropriate to describe evolution or natural selection as "nonrandom"? To my mind, it is...

How “random” is “randomness”? Let’s start here, with the page that got me to start thinking about this question: Schrödinger's cat The idea, of course, is to tie the existence of the cat to a “random” 50/50 probability. In the Wikipedia article, four interpretations are given: The Copenhagen...

Perhaps this belongs more in Philosophy, but there is a scientific angle in this as well. If it was possible to be aware of everything in the entire Universe (such as a god that was fully omniscient) would one conclude that randomness still existed?

The title of the thread says it all. I understand that evolution is a process directed through natural selection, but, as I understand it, natural selection is based on the probability, not certainty, of an organism with a specific "fitness complement" (i.e., the set of genes that contribute to...

I was attempting to explain Monte Carlo simulations to a guy who was telling me that "80% of all statistics are false" is not a joke. This because I said "statistically significant", to which he replied 'statistics is all wrong, anyway'... However. He denied that computers are capable of...

Several times, on this board and elsewhere, I've heard that evolution is not a random process. When creationists say "Evolution is just random chance", evolution accepters say "It's chance, but it's not random." Isn't this wrong? I was of the understanding that randomness is the very...

Is randomness = indeterminsim? Or to ask differently: Is randomness (like in random decay) by definition the (only) opposite to determinism? Straight forward question, no?

Determinism continued... The purpose of this thread is to better understand what determinism is vs. randomness and hopefully to get some insight into the concept of free will. As in the case of any theory, we should start off fresh by defining some of the terms relating to what we are...

The debate over free will has pervaded many cultures since the dawn of human intelligence and philosophical thinking, but have we really figured anything out in all these years of investigatingthe subject? One might wonder, even if only briefly, why the question of free is still being raised in...

I'm trying to work through a problem and was hoping to get some feedback and ideas from people here. This is just for my own personal satisfaction and not for any type of publication, at all. The question is, can anything truly be random? Let us first define random as: Now let us define...